On Saturday, August 31, a Chinese naval survey ship entered Japanese waters, marking the second intrusion by the Chinese military into Japanese territory in less than a week. Japan has officially lodged a protest with China.
In recent years, Chinese military activities near Japan and around Taiwan have been on the rise, causing concerns for Japan. Japan has bolstered its defense in response, stating that it aims to prevent China from using military force to assert its territorial claims in the region.
According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the Chinese ship was confirmed to have entered the territorial waters near the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan at around 6 a.m. local time and departed shortly before 8 a.m. Japanese military vessels and aircraft monitored its movements.
In a statement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry expressed “strong concern and protest” to Chinese embassy officials regarding the incident. The statement also mentioned the Chinese military aircraft incursion into Japanese airspace on Monday. This marked the first time the Japanese Self-Defense Forces detected Chinese military aircraft entering Japanese airspace.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian claimed on Tuesday that China had no intention of violating any country’s airspace. Earlier this week, the Japanese government informed Chinese diplomats that Monday’s airspace violation was “completely unacceptable.”
According to reports from Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, the incident on Saturday was the tenth time in the past year that a Chinese naval survey ship had entered Japanese territorial waters. Including submarines and other intelligence-gathering vessels, this incident marked the thirteenth intrusion.
Chinese activities in the airspace and waters surrounding Japan have been increasing, particularly near the southwestern islands extending from mainland Japan to Taiwan. As per the report from the Japanese Ministry of Defense, in July and August, a Chinese fleet led by the aircraft carrier “Shandong” repeatedly appeared in waters south of the Japanese archipelago; fighter jets and helicopters were observed taking off and landing from the aircraft carrier.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Japan unveiled a budget proposal for the 2025 fiscal year on Friday, with defense spending reaching up to 8.5 trillion yen, equivalent to nearly 590 billion US dollars, representing a 7.4% increase compared to this year. Under the leadership of outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Japan is aggressively pushing for almost a doubling of its defense budget.
The Ministry of Defense stated that the 2025 defense budget will allocate 2.2 billion dollars to establish a small satellite network to monitor ships and military installations in response to China’s repeated intrusions.